Category Archives: human rights

German bank to determine whether Jewish peace group is anti-Semitic | +972 Magazine

Bank für Sozialwirtschaft says it will conduct a ‘scientific review’ of Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East after the group was accused anti-Semitism over its support for the BDS movement.

Source: German bank to determine whether Jewish peace group is anti-Semitic | +972 Magazine

The pressure on both Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East and Bank für Sozialwirtschaft, began in 2016, after the Jerusalem Post published an article on several Jewish German groups that had demanded the bank shut down the organization’s account over the latter’s support for BDS. The bank gave in and the account was shut down — the first time a German bank had shut down a Jewish organization’s account since the fall of the Nazi regime — only to be re-opened in 2017.

Measles: WHO warns cases have jumped 50% | Society | The Guardian

In 2018 measles caused approximately 136,000 deaths around the world, according to the WHO’s preliminary figures. The highly contagious disease can cause severe diarrhoea, pneumonia and vision loss. It can be fatal in some cases and remains “an important cause of death among young children” according to the WHO. The disease can be easily prevented with two doses of a “safe and efficient” vaccine that has been in use since the 1960s, the UN agency says. Facebook under pressure to halt rise of anti-vaccination groups Read more Up until 2016 the number of measles cases had been steadily declining but since 2017 the number had soared, according to Katrina Kretsinger, who heads WHO’s expanded immunisation programme. “There are a number of outbreaks … which are driving some of these increases,” she told reporters, pointing to significant outbreaks in Ukraine, Madagascar, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad and Sierra Leone. In Madagascar alone “from October 2018 through 12 February 2019 a total of 66,278 cases and 922 deaths have been reported”, the WHO said.

Source: Measles: WHO warns cases have jumped 50% | Society | The Guardian

Did the Holocaust Happen? – LA Progressive

American conservatives sometimes use the Holocaust to spread inappropriate partisan messages. On Holocaust Remembrance Day two weeks ago, the Harris County (Texas) Republican Party posted a Facebook message with a yellow star-shaped badge and these words: “Leftism kills. In memory of the 6 million Jews lost to Nazi hatred in the name of National Socialism. We will never forget.” The Texas Republicans explained that they were connecting the name of the National Socialist Party with “leftism”, even though the extreme right-wing Nazis killed every socialist they could get their hands on.

Source: Did the Holocaust Happen? – LA Progressive

Wife of White House communications chief goes on anti-vaccine tirade | US news | The Guardian

Darla Shine, a former TV producer, is married to Bill Shine, the former executive at Fox News who was appointed last year as Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff for communications. Faced with criticism over her comments, Shine accused “the Left” of attempting to smear her. She also suggested, without evidence, that measles can cure cancer, pointing to a 2014 case that was far more complex and did not draw any kind of definitive conclusions. Advertisement This is not the first time Darla’s Shine’s public statements have sparked controversy. She once declared that sunscreen was “a hoax” and on numerous occasions pushed debunked theories about the danger of vaccines. Other unearthed tweets found Darla Shine making profane remarks about race, questioning why white people were considered racist for using “the n’word” given its use by black people and defending the Confederate flag. She has repeatedly struck a dismissive tone when discussing allegations of sexual assault, be it in the military or at Fox News.

Source: Wife of White House communications chief goes on anti-vaccine tirade | US news | The Guardian

Will Chinese company’s stake in Reddit normalise censorship? | Emily Bell | Media | The Guardian

The creation of concentration camps for a million Uighurs in Xinjiang has not been enough to persuade any of the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs receiving funds from Chinese companies to refuse the cash. Neither is it apparently enough of a deterrent to stop the US companies investing in China to stop their plans to enter the market. Trade tensions between the US and China revolve entirely around tariffs and not around human rights. Most troubling of all, against a background of demonstrably tightening censorship, internment camps and an extension of totalitarianism, the narrative of western companies is that their presence in China, and the presence of Chinese money in western companies, is helping ease those restrictions. All the evidence says this is not true.

Source: Will Chinese company’s stake in Reddit normalise censorship? | Emily Bell | Media | The Guardian

Rome’s war of words with President Macron may prove self-defeating | World news | The Guardian

The danger is that the stream of insults pouring off the Italian party leaders’ Facebook pages has not just political but also economic consequences, with Italy coming off worse. Trump can insult with impunity since he heads a superpower. Italy, by contrast, is less powerful, and an alliance with Viktor Orbán’s Hungary is hardly a sufficient shelter. Already some businesses that co-operate across the Franco-Italian border are feeling uneasy. Alitalia is hoping for French capital to save the airline. Infrastructure plans such as the Turin-Lyon high-speed rail link are in doubt. Italy, in recession and heading for only 0.2% growth this year, will need some allies in Europe and in Brussels. Its banking system remains undercapitalised. M5S is determined to show it is on the side of the people, and not the bankers, but translating that emotion into practical budgetary policy is proving difficult. Insults by contrast come easier, and cheaper.

Source: Rome’s war of words with President Macron may prove self-defeating | World news | The Guardian

Friday Open Thread | James Comey: Take down the confederate statues now | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Comey argues that the Confederate statues are “much larger and more powerful symbols of that oppression — symbols born of a similar desire to keep black people down.” He describes them as “gigantic bronze embodiments of that same racism.” “They loom over Virginians every day,” Comey writes. “If Virginia’s leaders want to atone for a troubling legacy, changing state law so Richmond’s statues no longer taunt the progress of our country would be a good place to start.” The former FBI director argues that the statues of Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis and Stonewall Jackson “weren’t put up to celebrate history or heritage; they were put up as a message: The 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution aren’t going to help you black folks because the South has risen from that humiliation. Jim Crow — a name rooted in blackface mockery — is king.”

Source: Friday Open Thread | James Comey: Take down the confederate statues now | 3CHICSPOLITICO

Much Has Been Confirmed in Dossier at Heart of Donald Trump Scandal – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Cohen and three other Trump emissaries met with people in Prague, including a man named Oleg Solodukhin. The meeting allegedly had to do with paying off Romanian hackers who, under the direction of the Kremlin, had been working to undermine the Clinton campaign. Cohen and Solodukhin reportedly discussed how they could funnel the money to the hackers and how the cooperation between Trump and Putin’s people could be covered up. Steele wrote that Trump’s people and the Russians agreed at the meeting that the Romanian hackers should go into hiding and “other operatives should head for a bolt-hole in Plovdiv, Bulgaria where they should ‘lay low.'” What a story! — that is, if it’s true. Trump’s lawyer allegedly conspired with the Kremlin. If this can be proved, it would amount to treason, but so far there is no concrete proof. Late last year, the U.S. newspaper publishing group McClatchy reported that one of Cohen’s mobile phones had logged on to a cell phone tower near Prague at the time in question. The journalists referred to four anonymous sources. But Cohen has repeatedly stated that he has never been to Prague or anywhere else in the Czech Republic. Oleg Solodukhin, the allege

Source: Much Has Been Confirmed in Dossier at Heart of Donald Trump Scandal – SPIEGEL ONLINE

How Facebook’s Tiny China Sales Floor Helps Generate Big Ad Money – The New York Times – money before morals is Facebook’s mantra

The desire by Chinese companies and other entities to get in front of people internationally has unexpectedly turned China into one of Facebook’s largest sources of advertising revenue, even though the social network itself is not available in the country. Charles Shen, chief executive of Meet Social, said his company anticipated doing $1 billion to $2 billion in ad sales on Facebook and Instagram this year. Each day, he added, Meet Social’s software puts up about 20,000 Chinese ads on Facebook.